I’m proud to share the fact that the Casualties of War leadership has signed The Averheim Declaration.
This strikes a blow not only for Order in a role-play sense, but for quality OpenRvR for the server in general. It’s good news for everyone who plays on Averheim.
Warning: This is an opinionated, biased rant. 🙂
Jobildo’s post got some excellent comments and in turn got me to thinking about scenarios and why I resist them as much as I do.
And the answer, it turns out, is pretty simple: I’m not paying $15/month to play Team Fortress with some RPG trappings. I’m paying to play a Massively Multiplayer game with a persistent world. Call of Duty 4 allows me to play missions over and over on the same handful of maps while leveling up a character and guess what? It doesn’t cost me a penny once I’ve bought the game.
For people who sit in a warcamp and grind scenarios, there is really no need for a persistent world. A lobby would do just as well, wouldn’t it? A lobby would require vastly fewer server resources and would’ve cost orders of magnitude less to develop.
Essentially, this is battle.net.
It feels stupid for me to pay a monthly fee to, in part, support the infrastructure for a world that no one wants to use.
And I’m kind of dubious that after ranking through 40 levels in scenarios, people are suddenly going to go into OpenRvR (erm, that assumes that T4 scenarios exist…I honestly am not sure if they do)! More likely they’ll either leave the game or keep grinding scenarios until they hit 80 renown, and then leave.
What I’d like to see is all the scenario grinders funneled off to one server, and all the OpenRvRers gathered together into another server. The grinders shouldn’t have to pay $15/month to play, either, but that’s a side point. The OpenRvR Server shouldn’t even offer scenarios.
What irks me is that, yeah, it’s hard to find OpenRvR even on high population servers. Why? Because everyone is grinding scenarios while commenting that OpenRvR isn’t fun because no one does it. Curiously, I wonder if there isn’t MORE OpenRvR on less populated servers with longer wait times for scenario queues. I plan to find out.
I understand people want to get to cap as fast as they can. That’s why the gold sellers also offer leveling services. Grinding scenarios isn’t the fastest and easiest way to cap: paying someone to level your character is. But I don’t see anyone openly suggesting this is the best way to go about it. Why not? If all that matters is getting to 40 as fast as possible, why not just buy your way there?
If you really enjoy running scenarios, then this rant isn’t really directed at you. Enjoy the game, though why you pay a monthly fee to do in this game what you could do for free in any of a multitude of others is beyond me.
But I’m seeing people expressing opinions along the lines of “I don’t really like standing around grinding scenarios but there’s nothing else to do.” Well you sir/madame, are part of the problem. Get out of the damned queue and get out and start exploring the world! Yeah, it might be quiet at first, but if people on both sides of the battle just opted to not grind scenarios for one night and head to the RvR Lakes, there’d be *plenty* to do!!
OK, end rant.
Whew, I feel better getting that off my chest.
And Mythic, for the love of all that is holy, stop sticking us in a friggin’ scenario queue every damned time we move into an RvR Lake. You’re just fanning the flames doing that, tempting people to leave!!!
OK now I’m REALLY done this time.
Jobildo has a great post up outlining some ideas to make OpenRvR in Warhammer more appealing than it is now. It is (unsurprisingly) a well thought-out post and you should go read it if you haven’t already.
I was honestly a bit shocked when I learned how much exp you can get from playing a scenario mini-game. Now I understand why everyone does them over and over until they start talking about the boredom of grinding scenarios.
Note to Mythic: When players start putting the word “grinding” ahead of one aspect of your game, it’s time for you to pay attention. For many (not all) players, Grinding isn’t an affectionate term.
Note to Players: We’ve seen evidence that Mythic listens and responds to player feedback. So don’t get discouraged! As Moltke said, keenly anticipating the age of the MMORPG, No battle plan survives contact with the enemy and WAR is a matter of expedients. I’m pretty sure Mythic’s battle plan didn’t anticipate people ignoring 3/4ths of the world in order to sit in a scenario queue all night, and that they’ll continue to refine the game until players are enjoying all aspects of it. Mythic’s method seems to be to slowly add bonuses rather than to go overboard and then have to nerf. Smart fellas.
What can we do? Provide feedback to Mythic, either on forums or in blog posts. Link to good posts like Jobildo’s to get it more attention. Make some noise and let Mythic know we want to be able to progress at a reasonable pace via OpenRvR!
It will come in time. WAR is Everywhere and Everwhen. It isn’t going anywhere; at least not anytime soon.
Today Mythic added some experience rewards for capturing a Keep, so the Casualties of War decided to go see what that was all about. We had Tier 3 and Tier 2 groups roving the RvR Lakes; I was with the T2 groups.
Great fun. For the record my Rank 15 Witch Hunter got 2300 exp for taking a keep (and 700 renown). My understanding is that at 15 he’s pretty much getting the max, and honestly given the organizational time, cost (for siege machines), and difficulty, it should be more, but this is a step in the right direction at least.
In all the excitement I only took a couple of screenshots, and none of them at the Keeps, but here is our merry band standing around “defending” a Battlefield Objective. (No Destruction types were silly enough to try to take it back.) We had 1 full warband of maybe 75% CoW members, and a second Warband that I’m thinking was about 2 groups. Keep battles were still a challenge since some of us were in Vent, some not, and there were 2 warbands so /shout was the best way to communicate (we probably should’ve created a channel…an idea that only just now occurred to me). Plus the design of the keeps can make it hard to bring all troops to bear at once…
Anyway, click for a much larger version:
Tonight on Averheim, Destruction took another shot at Altdorf. In fact the battle rages as I type this (slain by the bedtime monster!).
I was determined to get involved, so off I went, a mighty rank 15 Witch Hunter ready to kick some Destruction ass!
OK not really. I knew I wouldn’t be any help but just wanted to see how things worked. The first challenge was getting to the battle. At first the fight was in Stonewatch, and I was still trying to figure out how to get there when Destruction moved on Reikland. I had come out the exit in the slums of Altdorf (the back exit, I believe) and crossed through the Heinrich Estate to the walls, except I was on the wrong side of it!
Luckily I found a Postern Gate and got in, then up on the walls. Destruction already had a ram on the main gate. I got close enough to pew pew with my pistol, but the best that did was earn me a scalding from some finger waggler. I had to run for my life and heal up.
I was looking at the map and talking to a guildie when the gate came down, and Destruction didn’t bother to stop to kill a level 15 on the walls. I closed the map and found myself alone on the walls. I manned an Organ Gun and for a while used it on incoming destruction reinforcements.
So the first thing I learned… if you have low level guildies who want to defend, let them take control of a siege weapon and they can make a meaningful contribution.
That said, a single siege weapon wasn’t killing anyone and we all know how fast one heals in WAR, so I judge my efforts there futile. I jumped down off the walls and ran up to the Destruction Horde pounding on the door of the keep. I shot one, and he turned and came after me. A level 40 marauder named Nobody. I fled of course, out through the gates, getting hung up for precious seconds on their abandoned battering ram. It was enough for Nobody to catch me and soon I was releasing back to a warcamp.
For some reason this was a camp at the other end of the zone. Rather than run back I flew into Altdorf and came out the main entrance and ran towards the battle. I ran around a corner and right into a marauder who more or less 1 shotted me. As I looked up I saw that it was… Nobody!!
I had to laugh, I’d taken the big circular route around the battlefield and came back to run into the same darned guy.
Next trip, I ran the length of the zone, getting a look at the lay of the land. Took me quite a while…
Thing two I learned. Fly to Altdorf and run out, it’s much faster.
..and soon I was back at the Postern Gate and slinking through. I ran all the way back into Altdorf to catch my breath, then back into the fray, ducking between some High Elves in full armor (I should note that there were open Warbands but I didn’t want some healer wasting their healing juice trying to keep a level 15 alive, so I remained solo.).
Suddenly the elves reversed direction and about trampled me. I rolled out of the way, jumped to my feet and followed them to… a sewer opening? People were clustering around it, pushing to get through. I followed, elbowing a dwarf in the head in order to cut in front of him. Inside was a claustrophobic spiral staircase, up I went, and popped out to face grim Order faces looking at me. Before I could ask “S’up Doodes?” I started taking damage. As I ran I glanced behind me…there were like 10 Destruction troops standing there… sneaky Destruction types, they were clonking people on the head as they emerged from the stairwell.
It was getting late and I’d learned a couple of things so I called it a night.
I can’t wait to get a few more levels so I can get into these battles in a meaningful way. Right now, in spite of what anyone tells you, there’s darned little a Tier 2 player can do, short of manning a siege weapon (It occurs to me that this might not be as true with Healers). A good tight warband of Tier 2 players could in theory act as a harrying force, but they’d have to be players that didn’t mind getting killed over and over again, and have a couple of healers hidden somewhere just to do resurrections.
But practically speaking, it makes more sense to spend your time gaining levels vs throwing yourself at much players twice+ your level.
And here’s where my personal weirdness comes out. I had a BLAST going out to defend Altdorf!! Being in a group of 20-30 players all running out to fight the enemy was great fun in DAoC and its great fun here, too.
Yeah, Altdorf might fall tonight, who knows? I don’t honestly care that much. What I care about is that the battle was fun. If it was fun at level 15, I can’t imagine how great it’ll be at 30 or 40! And I also care that Order was reacting and organizing. There are players on the Order side who want to put up a good fight.
I’m excited about the future of WAR, and I’m glad to be on Averheim. It’s a great server to play Order on.
And on the off chance that Nobody reads this (as opposed to the usual nobody reading it) I have to ask, and be honest. You came after me cuz I was so damned flash, didn’t ya!?? 🙂 I mean, what self-respecting Marauder could resist taking a shot at the Witch Hunter in the purple armor!!?
Update: Saylah hung around for the whole battle. Read her account here: Order on Averheim say, “No, you can’t take it during prime time!”
My eyes are red and tearing from my last heroic push to complete this tome. Do I get an unlock for that? Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus
Gotrek Gurnisson is a Slayer; a dwarf who has suffered some shame (this far the details of which have yet to be revealed) and as a way to make amends is seeking a glorious death. Felix Jaeger is the son of a rich merchant; a scholar and poet, who was expelled from university after killing a fellow student in a duel. After this, he somehow provoked the famous Window Tax Riots, during which Gotrek saved his life. The two went out and got good and drunk together after this incident, and Felix swore an oath to travel with Gotrek and record his doom.
The books are written from Felix’s point of view (which fits well as he is the chronicler of Gotrek’s journey), and it is his growth as a character that keeps things interesting. Gotrek is more or less a force of nature, running towards any and every hopeless battle while Felix reluctantly follows along and inevitably ends up performing better than he ever hoped he would.
Trollslayer has the pair cavorting across the lands encountering all manner of evil in a loosely linked series of stories. Skavenslayer is more focused and concentrates on the Skaven (rat-men) plot to take over the city of Nuln. King’s rendition of the Skaven is wonderfully awful; cowardly, malicious creatures who are always one scare away from “squirting the musk of fear” or chewing their own tails out of nervousness or frustration. In Daemonslayer, Gotrek and Felix take part in an expedition into the Chaos Wastes of the North.
As a stand-alone book, Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus is great fun, a wonderful swords and sorcery (and bit of steampunk) yarn. My only real Warhammer connection is Warhammer Online, and I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed the book any less had I not been playing WAR; I’d recommend it for any fan of s&s fantasy.
On the other hand, reading the book really helped keep me in the mood for playing the game, so if you’re a WAR subscriber you might want to keep that in mind.
You may be a bit lost at first (I was) since the first book is all short stories, but soon enough you’ll get a feel for the characters and really start enjoying them. King’s skill as a writer improves through the three books as well (or so it seemed to me). The writing seems to get better and better as the series goes on.
I don’t usually get caught up on price, but this is also quite a bargain. Amazon lists the book $8.79 USD at the time of this writing, and it runs 763 pages. The downside is that it’s a mass-market paperback with about a 1.75″ spine, so it probably won’t stand up to too many readings without the spine cracking.
But I do indeed feel fine.
So at 7 am on Sunday, an alliance of Destruction guilds on Averheim launched an attack on Altdorf, Order’s Main City. Semantics aside, they got into the city but failed to kill the King before they were ousted. For a few hours, only Tier 4 Order Characters could enter the city and that was to defend it. A few hours later, Altdorf was back to normal and if you’d gone out to enjoy a beautiful fall day yesterday, you wouldn’t have ever known anything had happened.
Unless you checked in with the blogosphere & message boards where people are sharing pretty – strong – reactions to this event.
For Ardwulf, this is reason enough to quit Warhammer [EDIT: see his comment to this post and his blog post on the topic. My apologies for mis-representing his reasons. This was more like a ‘final straw’ thing than his main reason for leaving]. Saylah seems concerned that players can use the clock to get an advantage (the attack started at 7 am), and lucidly points out some weaknesses in the system. I hope she offered these points as feedback to Mythic. And the VN boards are just an explosion of whining, as is typical of the VN boards. In game, we had a guild member seemingly very upset and declaring the war over for Order and that it was pointless to keep playing (I paraphrase, but that was his tone).
I am surprised to find myself surprised by these reactions (meaning the reaction of people on various message boards; I think my fellow bloggers make good points). You’d think I’d learn by now. Warhammer is an RvR game, and RvR (or PvP) isn’t always fair and its almost always messy. Sometimes you’re going to win and other times you’re going to lose, but if you want to win early and consistently, you pretty much have to be hardcore. Casual players/guilds/sides aren’t going to win as often as people who build their life around a game. (This, by the way, is why in general I prefer PvE games, but I’m making an exception or Warhammer since the RvR is so fun.)
One specific note as to the time. Mythic has stated that all the objectives have to be taken within 12 hours in order to capture a city, from which one would infer that this might be a 12-hour event. Given that, 7 am doesn’t seem to be so off the mark as a good time to start.
What no one seems to be considering is how much fun this is going to be when more of us are level 40. We did City Attack and City Defense during beta, and wow, was that some fun stuff, running through the streets of a city, sacking and pillaging, or saving and protecting. It was fun on either side.
And it’s part of the game. If you don’t want to play a game where you are sometimes inconvenienced by events in the world then quitting Warhammer probably is the right thing to do, honestly. People so often complain that their actions in a MMORPG game world have no consequences: well in Warhammer they do have consequences, but not all consequences are good ones.
The impact this attack had on me was to get me anticipating even more getting into higher tier RvR. I wish I’d been high enough level to help defend the city. Next time hopefully I will be. And I’m looking forward to the day when we try to give as good as we’ve got and make a play for the Inevitable City.
And when this back and forth gets tired, I’ll move on. Another puzzle (to me) is people wondering how Warhammer will sustain our interest for years to come if people are attacking the cities already. I’ll say right now that no game is going to sustain my interest for years to come, nor am I looking for such a beast. There are SO MANY games to play and more coming all the time. Life is short and I want to play and enjoy as many of them as I can.
Last night was all about the PvE. I wasn’t really in the mood for company, and my Witch Hunter wasn’t really in the bracket for it, either. Well, when I started up for the evening he was rank 11, which is exactly the point where you should enjoy some RvR, but soon after he rolled over to 12 and was a noob again.
I also hit Troll Country for the first time; I thought things were grim in Nordland and Norsca, but these poor bastards…their gods have abandoned them. It is beyond me how they continue to hold on to any sliver of hope, faced with troll incursions on one side, demons on the other, and a mutation plague running rampant amongst them. Stinking nobles can’t be trusted.
Along the way to rank 13 I upgraded just about every piece of gear I own. I also finally got a cloak and spent a bit more time than I’m comfortable admitting to in deciding what colors to dye it. I think we have here a perfect indicator of role players vs non-role players. When you see a Witch Hunter run past with bright yellow thigh-high boots and a plain white cloak…you can pretty much bet that’s not a role player. 🙂 
I ended up going with forest green and a sky blue trim, and dyed those awful yellow boots a basic brown with forest green highlights (these images don’t reflect the latest boots). Next bit of kit was a bandoleer and now I’m looking like a witch hunter. I just need the hat.
I feel like I’ve burned through Troll Country awfully quickly, unless there’s a bunch more quests I’m about to unlock. I’m stationed now at the last fortress before leaving the zone, I think. But a couple more levels and I can head out into the contested areas and see what that additional 50% exp for killing opposing players feels like.
We interrupt this mostly MMO blog to announce that this weekend, Steam has Peggle Deluxe for a paltry $4.99.
If you’ve never played Peggle… well you better stop reading and go play it (there’s a free demo). I mean… IT HAS UNICORNS! I know you all love unicorns!
Kidding aside, this is a seriously addicting puzzle/pachinko style game. I won’t describe it because it just sounds dumb when its described. But it’s pretty popular…I know I’m often weird in my gaming tastes but this one is pretty mainstream and fun. Great for playing with your kids, too.
A week ago, the gaming blog-o-sphere was rife with posts talking about how much fun Warhammer Online is. Everyone (I’m speaking figuratively here) was RvRing and questing and PQing and having a grand old time. Now, not so much. Blogger after blogger are putting up posts expressing concern with the leveling rate or the leveling style or the lack of depth in the game.
These are people who have played the game for a few weeks and are basing their posts on real and significant experience, so I’m not going to disagree with them one bit; we all come at these games with our own expectations and desires. A lot of people seem to be just killing time for the new WoW Expansion as much as anything, and there’s much doom and gloom about how Warhammer will be a ghost town when Lich King launches.
I can’t deny this makes me sad, because they may be right.
I also have to admit I was feeling a wee bit of burnout/excess grindiness earlier this week, after I spent Monday and Tuesday nights playing all evening (and having fun, I might add). My personal poison is PQ Grinding. Like everyone else, I’m finding it harder and harder to find groups to do PQs with; and I don’t feel comfortable skipping them since my character is so dependent on the gear we get as Influence Rewards. Killing Easy rated mobs over and over for 100 Influence each gets kind of dull. And as soon as you finish one, you literally are directed to the next one and have to start all over again. It feels endless.
I’m bored with Scenarios as well, but those I can safely ignore since I can get Renown via open world RvR (which is wicked fun); the only way to get influence rewards is to do PQs.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the weekend. I barely played at all Wednesday, and Thursday I didn’t log in until after 10. Not having a lot of time before bed, I figured I’d just grind some Influence and hit the hay. It felt good to step back into the shoes of my Witch Hunter, and I just started running around, knocking the dust off my gear and making sure I hadn’t forgotten any skills or anything. And instead of grinding Influence, I got caught up in a quest to find a stolen chest. This ended up being the first step of a “treasure map” kind of quest. Each step gave a clue as to where to find the next step. And it was a lot of fun.
I had to log soon after, but now I find myself counting down the minutes until I can get out of here and start the weekend. I don’t know how long this will last…I might be starting to feel the burnout again by the end of the night. I can never predict these things. It was just weird to almost grudgingly log in last night, and then end up being really happy to be in-game.
Some small part of me *wants* to get burned out on Warhammer, to be honest. There’re a bunch of single player games incoming that I really want to play, and there’s the Mines of Moria expansion for LOTRO set to arrive on Nov. 18th. Will I contribute to the ghost town-ification of Warhammer Online?
I just don’t know. I’m going to play while I’m having fun, and stop playing when I’m not. These are games, after all. If they aren’t fun, there’s no point in playing them.
To the bloggers who’re leaving, I sincerely hope you find a game that you find enjoyable, and thanks for helping to make Warhammer enjoyable during the time you were in-world with the rest of us.